Wednesday, November 15, 2017

GOP Tax Plan In Trouble After Republican Senator Says He Won’t Back It

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.)

A key Senate Republican said today that he would not support the emerging GOP tax plan and another expressed major reservations about the bill, reports The Washington Post.

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said he was opposed to the new bill because it disproportionately benefits corporations at the expense of other businesses.

“If they can pass it without me, let them,” Johnson said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. “I’m not going to vote for this tax package.”

Separately, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said she had major concerns over Republicans changing their tax bill to include language repeal a major part of the Affordable Care Act, saying that was a “mistake.”

“This bill is a mixture of some very good provisions and some provisions I consider to be big mistakes,” Collins said.

Notes WaPO:

The combined warnings from Johnson and Collins cast doubt over whether Republicans can find enough support to pass their bill. The party controls 52 votes in the 100-seat Senate, and ‘no’ votes from Collins and Johnson would mean every other Republican needed to support the bill for it to pass. Should the vote split evenly, Vice President Pence would vote in favor of the bill to break the tie.

There are a number of Senate Republicans who have not said how they will vote on the evolving bill. Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), for example, has said in the past he would not support a tax cut bill that included provisions that expired, as the new GOP bill is designed to do. Asked Wednesday, Corker said he was still reviewing the bill.

Another potential holdout, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), repeatedly declined to say whether he’d vote for a tax bill that includes the proposed Republican change to the Affordable Care Act. McCain, who voted against a previous attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act, said he wanted to review the tax bill as a whole.

The bill is mostly a shell game. I will not lose any sleep over it going down to defeat.